April 14, 2018

Gay sex between consenting men in Trinidad and Tobago could soon be decriminalized following a court judgment that campaigners said might spark similar decisions elsewhere in the Caribbean.

In his ruling on Thursday, judge Devindra Rampersad said sections of the Sexual Offences Act, which prohibit “buggery” and “serious indecency” between two men, criminalized consensual same-sex activity between adults, and were unconstitutional.

“The judge came down on the right side of history in this case by striking down the buggery law and ruling it as unconstitutional,” said Kenita Placide, Caribbean advisor for rights group OutRight Action International, in a statement.

The decision followed a similar ruling in Belize in 2016.

“With positive rulings in Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, the movement will carry the momentum to other parts of the region,” she said.

A final judgment on how to deal with the sections of the act is expected in July, rights groups and local media said.

The case was brought in 2017 by Jason Jones, an activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues who lives in Britain but was born in Trinidad and Tobago.

In an online campaign, he said he wanted to challenge laws inherited while the country was under British rule. Trinidad and Tobago became a republic in 1976. Last year, it was one of five countries which amended its laws to ban child marriage.

But it has no laws protecting LGBT people, and rights groups say many LGBT people fear being open about their views or orientation. Being convicted of buggery carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, according to the law.

Thursday’s ruling was welcomed outside the courthouse by large crowds wearing rainbow outfits and singing the national anthem. Earlier this week, hundreds of people gathered outside parliament to show support for the case.

Colin Robinson, director of the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation, warned there was a long way to go.

“I don’t want to be alarmist, but I expect that this will take time for people to accept, and we hope the violence is minimal,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Trinidad and Tobago.

The group, which works for justice on sex and gender issues, said it expected the government would appeal the ruling.

In February, the nearby island of Bermuda became the world’s first nation to reverse a law allowing same-sex marriage. LGBT activists feared that would set a dangerous precedent for gay rights and reverberate far beyond the region.

What is it like to be gay in the Caribbean? The Travelling Trini occasionally gets emails from young gay Trinidadians who “have the burning desire to go abroad, travel, and see the world”. She deduces that this wanderlust stems from the fact that “the Caribbean is a incredibly homophobic place with a raging macho-man culture, and coming out is an incredibly difficult, and often dangerous, thing to do.”

The post goes on to list several songs that promoted homophobia and gay violence back in the nineties: Buju Banton'sBoom Bye Bye was unsurprisingly at the top of the heap, but the blogger describes them all as “dark, violent and downright disgusting.” She asks:

Why is it not considered hate speech? Why are radio stations allowed to play it? [...] The question is, why is it okay to still be so violently anti-gay in 2015?

She connects this constricted reality with the desire many gay Caribbean people have to migrate and testifies that the Far East, where she currently resides, “is a very gay friendly place, indeed”:

There are thriving gay scenes in every country, from the liberal far east to the conservative Middle East and everywhere in between.

The whole world is not straight. It never has been, and it never will be. [...]

Unfortunately these liberal lifestyles are not tolerated in the Caribbean, and are in fact still criminalised under law. There is no legal protection for LGBT citizens [...] just as people fought for equal rights based on race, and equal rights based on gender, the next step in our human evolution is equal rights for all people regardless of their sexual orientation.

October 1, 2014

Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar struck a sour note with citizens last week when, after making the feature address at the Trinidad and Tobago Investment Conference in New York, she told the media that her government would not seek to decriminalise homosexuality as “it would not be prudent [...] to proceed in that direction at this time”.

In Trinidad and Tobago, Section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act (1986), criminalises “buggery”. If anal sex is carried out between adults, the imprisonment term can be as much as 25 years. While the law is not generally enforced, the fact that it remains on the books means that it theoretically can be. Religious fervor contributes to the general lack of social tolerance.

To underscore the point of the prime minister's reneging on her promise, the Trinidad Guardian newspaper published portions of a letter which she sent to Lance Price, founder of The Kaleidoscope Trust, a UK-based non-profit that advocates for gay rights worldwide. Her 2012 correspondence was in reply to Price's concerns about the way in which Trinidad and Tobago's Immigration Act and Sexual Offences Act were discriminatory against the LGBT community. Persad-Bissessar wrote:

I wish to assure you that due consideration is being given to these issues by my Government.

I do not support discrimination in any form against any individual, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

I share your view that the stigmatisation of homosexuality in T&T is a matter which must be addressed on the grounds of human rights and dignity to which every individual is entitled under international law.

I have mandated my Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development [...] to prepare and present a national gender policy to Cabinet over the coming months.

It is expected that once adopted, this policy will forge the way forward for T&T as my Government seeks to put an end to all discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation.

On Facebook, reaction was swift, with one user noting that when it came to equal rights, the prime minister passed the buck onto the citizenry, suggesting that the issue “may require as a referendum to get the views of the people”, yet her government was more than happy to proceed with constitutional reform without public consensus.

Blogger and university lecturer Rhoda Bharath took issue with the prime minister's short memory, saying:

Remember the promise of the national gender policy?Remember that Kamla promised to review gay rights?Neither does Kamla….Can't wait to have folks in Gender studies tell me about all the hard work they doing on the national gender agenda….

An interesting angle to the controversy was the reaction of the country's Roman Catholic Archbishop, who retaliated against the prime minister's blame game. Persad-Bissessar had pointed fingers at the church, saying that a “Roman Catholic group” was up in arms about the draft gender policy; Archbishop Joseph Harris called the accusation “untrue” and “reckless”, saying that it insinuated the Catholic Church was supportive of the discrimination against the LGBT community. The Archbishop maintained that the church was just one of several religious groups that had reservations about some aspects of the gender policy.

I dunno but when you have the Catholic church saying you are backward this country's politicians better start reassessing their policies. That's like the Taliban saying you are too conservative.

He also posted a photo quote from American TV host and political commentator Rachel Maddow saying, “But here's the thing about human rights. They're not actually supposed to be voted on. That's why they're called rights.” Ramesar added:

Can we get Rachel to fly down and explain this to T&T politicians? They really don't seem to grasp the concept.

Obviously, with elections due next year, the PM is wary of her political survival, and is unwilling to tackle any contentious issue, including this one.

But, as a ‘senior counsel', the PM ought to be aware that the laws against the LGBT community are illegal. Not might be, but actually are. Given that the Constitution is granting equal rights to all, those laws that ban homosexuality etc are ultra vires… Outside of the Constitution.

The blogger also noted, however, that “these laws have not been challenged by the LGBT community in court” — a point that Rhoda Bharath also picked up on. Her perception was that gays in Trinidad and Tobago are not very vocal about advocating for their own rights as a community. She asked on Facebook:

Is the gay community willing and ready to step up, step forward and lead a mature discussion sexuality, identity and what they want?

Trinis are generally insensitive and naive about gender and sexuality issues. We inadvertently oppress people with our ideas of normal and acceptable when it comes to those areas. However, if the community wants to be taken seriously… Beyond the news cycle… It needs to seize the opportunity to start and sustain the discussion. No movement for human rights was won on the sidelines.

The gspott blog is also used as a means of disseminating information about any progress CAISO and other advocacy groups have made when it comes to LGBT equality as a human rights issue, putting the onus on changing the country's laws not just on the LGBT community but on others who value human rights.

Photo of the front page of the Trinidad Guardian by FREEPRIDE. Used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

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